By Oke Peter
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Tuesday announced that it had recovered assets worth over N771 million from some oil marketers who under-paid for petroleum products supplied to them from the Kaduna depot of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company.
NNPC’s Anti-Corruption Committee Chairman, Mike Balami, said the committee, in collaboration with Federal Government’s intelligence and anti-corruption agencies such as the Department of State Services (DSS), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), recovered the assets from the defaulting marketers.
The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, said the corporation’s anti-corruption committee brought in forensic experts to uncover the shady deals by some of the marketers involved.
Balami outlined some of the recovered assets to include filling stations, water factories and six sports utility vehicles, adding that the forensic investigation would be extended to the other depots across the country to stop the bleeding of the national oil company.
He noted that it was established that the affected marketers lifted petroleum products from the PPMC Kaduna depot without evidence of payment; and when confronted with the evidence, they admitted to the offence and failed to pay their liabilities.
According to him, the NNPC has been working hard to stop all the leakages in the corporation.
Balami stressed that the forfeited assets would be handed over to the corporation’s Corporate Asset Boarding and Disposal Committee for immediate disposal.
He added that investigation into the lifting of petroleum products without evidence of payment was continuing, urging all relevant stakeholders to support the NNPC Anti-Corruption Committee in its onerous task of recovering all its monies outside NNPC’s system.
He said that this was the first time that the NNPC would be taking over assets forfeited by marketers who defaulted in their terms of engagement.
